1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for the processing of electronic transactions, and specifically, to the processing of electronic transactions over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Educational institutions and private corporations often provide many types of services on their campuses to students, employees, and others (“users”), using a central service point system to process electronic transactions. The electronic transactions, which include requests for access to physical spaces or items (e.g., accessing a room), access to electronic information (e.g., viewing a transcript online), and determining at least one of the price and availability of an item (e.g., how much a book costs and if a student can purchase it), are often initiated by the users at a point of service device (“device”). The devices generate the electronic transactions (e.g., a request by a user to access a room, view a transcript online, or purchase a book) that are transmitted to the central service point so that the central service point can provide a response to the request to the devices (e.g., permission or denial whether to provide access to the room, to view the transcript online, or purchase a book at a certain price). As discussed herein, an educational space or item includes, without limitation, a space or item that is associated with an educational environment or purpose (e.g., lecture room, file room, educational building, sports field, bookstore, exercise facility, recreational facility). As discussed herein, electronic educational information includes, without limitation, information that is associated with a user's account at an educational institution (e.g., transcripts, exams, homework, progress report, course materials, class roster, financial transactions, etc.). As discussed herein, an educational item includes, without limitation, an item associated with an educational institution (e.g., text book, syllabus, retail product at the educational facility's store).
The central service point is usually in a remote location to the campus so that the central service point can be hosted and maintained by another entity (the “host”). Consequently, requests for information from the devices are transmitted from the campus to the host's remote location, and responses to the requests are transmitted back to the campus from the host's remote location. As a result, a large volume of network traffic is generated between the campus and the remote location, which may burden the network connection between the campus and the remote location and increase the time required for providing a response. Some of this network traffic may reflect duplicate requests for information.
Additionally, if the network connection between the campus and the host's remote location is slow or unavailable, the requests may not be received at the remote location, and the responses may not be received at the campus. Furthermore, if a firewall is put in place, such as by the central service point at the host's remote location, requests from the devices may not be properly received by the central service point if the network traffic comprising the requests cannot be identified when transmitted from the campus or when received by the central service point.